Drawing its information from different documents in Portuguese and French archives, this article examines the evolution of Portuguese colonial policies towards Islam, focusing on the special case of Mozambique. Such policies evolved from an attitude of neglect and open repression, prevalent in the early years of the colonial war that broke out in 1965, when Muslims were perceived as the main supporters of the anti-colonial guerrilla in northern Mozambique, to an approach that tried to isolate ‘African Muslims’ from foreign influences in order to align them with the Portuguese. The article analyses the latter strategy, assessing its successes and failures, and the contributions made by several of those who were involved.
Este artigo procura contribuir para o estudo dos processos históricos que têm tomado populações muçulmanas como alvos preferenciais da governança e da análise políticas. Baseado em documentação de arquivos portugueses e franceses, o artigo procura assinalar as mais notórias representações identitárias que ideólogos e membros do aparelho colonial português construíram em torno dos grupos islâmicos da Guiné-Bissau e de Moçambique, incidindo especialmente nesta última colónia. Tais imagens articularam-se com as estratégias de governação das populações muçulmanas num quadro colonialista, sobretudo após a eclosão das guerras coloniais. O artigo defende que a posição semiperiférica de Portugal no sistema-mundo conferiu às suas representações e estratégias identitárias, nomeadamente às que se reportam aos muçulmanos colonizados, um carácter de profunda ambivalência1. This article wishes to contribute to the study of the historical processes that have been spotting Muslim populations as favourite targets for political analysis and governance. Based on Portuguese and French archives, the article tries to uncover the most conspicuous identity representations that ideologues and members of Portuguese colonial staff built around the Islamic communities of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. It shows how those images were related to strategies designed for ruling Muslim populations within the colonialist frame, especially after the outbreak of colonial wars. The main argument of this text is that the semi-peripheral position of Portugal in the world-system gave its identity representations and strategies, namely those regarding colonized Muslims, a character that was deeply ambivalent
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